Ivan Messac - Biography

 Ivan Messac was born in Caen in 1948.

After having written songs, read the poets of the Beat Generation and hitchhiked around Europe, he started painting.
He made a discreet contribution to May 68, did not enroll in the School of Fine Arts, but began studying philosophy at the University of Nanterre. One of the singularities of Ivan Messac is not to have waited until he was offered a gallery to exhibit his work. In 1969, he unrolled a 10m fresco on paper in the corridors of the University of Nanterre which marked his artistic and political commitment. One of his fellow students will write along the railroad tracks: Messac au Louvre.



In 1969, he exhibited at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture of which he became a member of the committee a few years later. He drew the posters for 1974 and 1975.
His series of paintings Minorité Absolue, dedicated to the Amerindians, earned him a certain notoriety and an article in the magazine Opus International. He was then attached to the Figuration Narrative movement, of which he became the youngest member along with Gérard Fromanger, Hervé Télémaque, Jacques Monory, Bernard Rancillac, Peter Klasen, Valerio Adami and many others.

"When we say that Ivan Messac is a painter, we will not have said much. If we had to summarize his artistic adventure, it would not be by the style, nor by the themes he has tackled, but by the spirit of freedom that dominates his practice...".
Since 1983, Ivan Messac alternates painting and sculpture. He creates monumental sculptures presented at the J&J Donguy gallery in 1987. Numerous exhibitions follow one another, including two in Quebec, at the Musée régional de Rimouski and the Musée des Beaux-arts de Joliette.






In 1973, the choreographer Michel Descombey commissioned him to design the sets and costumes for a ballet set to music by Stockhausen. At the same time, he prepared his first solo exhibition in Paris, "Le noble art", on the world of boxing.

From 1981 onwards, his paintings became more and more abstract. These abstract works will be the subject of a large retrospective at the Bernard Ceysson Gallery in Luxembourg in 2009.

In 1987, he created marble sculptures for public commissions in China for the city of Changchun, in Lebanon for the French Embassy, in Paris on Boulevard de Grenelle and in the Halles area, in the nursery school on Rue de la Villette and in Saint-Denis for the EDF site.



In 2001, the Villa Tamaris presents a hundred paintings from 1968 to 1978. Then follow exhibitions with many galleries: Art To Be, Lille, Le Radar, Bayeux, Baudoin Lebon, Paris, Pepper, Antibes, Anne-Marie and Roland Pallade, Lyon, HdM Gallery, Beijing, Taglialatella, Paris.

In 2014, he made a stained glass window for the Chapel Saint Sylvain, Nevers, France

In 2016, is programmed by the Centre Pompidou, the event: Messac Live: 20 days for a painting. Ivan Messac has to create, under the public eye, a work. He cheerfully mixes painting and digital printing. In the end, not one but five monumental works will be created.

In 2021, a one-man show is presented at Art Paris by Art to Be Gallery, the same year, Yoyo Maeght publishes two limited edition prints, one of which is a tribute to Elvis Presley. 



"Jailhouse Rock" - Print, 65 x 50 cm - 25 signed and numbered copies - Edition Yoyo Maeght, 2021

Personal exhibitions (selection)